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**ahagotyou** · 11-24-2005, 07:00 AM

If one were to instruct a beginning piano student to play the Cmaj scale 1000 times a day for the next 1000 days, will the student be a better student as a result of it? All suburi are rather simple movements of the arms and takes less then ten minutes under constant supervision to 'master'. Suburi is a warmup and nothing else. Much like if a pianist is given a piece to learn in five hours, the pianist will not spend four hours and fifty minutes playing the scale in a delusion that the exercise will help him/her learn the piece.

I was a piano performance major in college.

Your example is ludicrous, but YES, both beginning piano students and advanced piano students DO many repetitions of scales (usually they don't start with C major, it's actually one of the more difficult scales fingering-wise)

In college I would usually do Each major and minor scale in eighth, triplet, and sixteenth-note patterns. That's 24 scales 3 times, so 72 scales. that was part of my warmup. Now consider that the eighth note pattern is 4 octaves (two up, two down) the triplet is 6, and the 16th note is 8, that gives us... 18 octaves per scale times 24 different scales.

So a total of 432 octaves. 216 ascending, 216 descending. Depending on the tempo I was taking, that could take anywhere from about 8-16 minutes.

Of course a beginning student wouldn't do all the scales or such a wide range at such fast speeds, but I would ask a beginning student to spend at least 5 minutes out of each 30 minute practice time doing scales.

The point of these scales is twofold. First, you practice the basics so that you can perform them without thinking when you encounter them in the real spiel. Scale passages are common in all piano music, and when I see one I don't even have to think about it anymore.

Secondly, practicing scales like that adds to your general strength, flexibility, speed, and endurance of piano playing, which aids you at all times.

The same thing equates to suburi. Or bump drills in volleyball, or line drills in basketball. Repetition of the basic skills makes using them in the whole picture that much easier and improves your all around facility at that skill.

My question for you is... why do you think you know how to teach this art better than the masters who have been teaching it for hundreds of years?

11-24-2005, 07:00 AM	#2
ahagotyou Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 571 Senior Member	If one were to instruct a beginning piano student to play the Cmaj scale 1000 times a day for the next 1000 days, will the student be a better student as a result of it? All suburi are rather simple movements of the arms and takes less then ten minutes under constant supervision to 'master'. Suburi is a warmup and nothing else. Much like if a pianist is given a piece to learn in five hours, the pianist will not spend four hours and fifty minutes playing the scale in a delusion that the exercise will help him/her learn the piece. I was a piano performance major in college. Your example is ludicrous, but YES, both beginning piano students and advanced piano students DO many repetitions of scales (usually they don't start with C major, it's actually one of the more difficult scales fingering-wise) In college I would usually do Each major and minor scale in eighth, triplet, and sixteenth-note patterns. That's 24 scales 3 times, so 72 scales. that was part of my warmup. Now consider that the eighth note pattern is 4 octaves (two up, two down) the triplet is 6, and the 16th note is 8, that gives us... 18 octaves per scale times 24 different scales. So a total of 432 octaves. 216 ascending, 216 descending. Depending on the tempo I was taking, that could take anywhere from about 8-16 minutes. Of course a beginning student wouldn't do all the scales or such a wide range at such fast speeds, but I would ask a beginning student to spend at least 5 minutes out of each 30 minute practice time doing scales. The point of these scales is twofold. First, you practice the basics so that you can perform them without thinking when you encounter them in the real spiel. Scale passages are common in all piano music, and when I see one I don't even have to think about it anymore. Secondly, practicing scales like that adds to your general strength, flexibility, speed, and endurance of piano playing, which aids you at all times. The same thing equates to suburi. Or bump drills in volleyball, or line drills in basketball. Repetition of the basic skills makes using them in the whole picture that much easier and improves your all around facility at that skill. My question for you is... why do you think you know how to teach this art better than the masters who have been teaching it for hundreds of years?
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